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South Africa Stocks Set to Finish Year With Gain of More Than 4%

South Africa Stocks Set to Finish Year With Gain of More Than 4%

South Africa’s main stocks benchmark was broadly neutral on Thursday, poised to finish the year with a gain of more than 4%, recovering from a drop of as much as 33% during the pandemic-fueled sell-off in March.

The FTSE/JSE Africa All-Share Index was down 0.4% as of 9:54 a.m. in Johannesburg, with 16 of 41 sector sub-indexes lower. Large-cap miners BHP Group Plc and Anglo American Plc weighed on the gauge the most, falling 1% and 0.7% respectively as iron ore futures head toward a back-to-back weekly loss.

Nevertheless, miners are set to become the third-best performing sector in 2020, behind industrial metals and oil producers. Industrial engineering, travel & leisure and chemicals stocks declined the most.

Thursday’s shortened trading session ends at noon local time, and markets will be closed on Friday.

  • Precious metal miners rose the most by index weight Thursday, with Northam Platinum Ltd. +1.2%, Sibanye Stillwater Ltd. +0.7%, Gold Fields Ltd. +0.8%, Anglo American Platinum Ltd. +0.7%
    • Spot Platinum down 0.4%; spot gold broadly neutral
  • Index heavyweight Naspers Ltd. declined 0.2%, still on track to finish the year with a gain of more than 30%
  • South Africa’s currency remained flat at 14.6133 rand against the dollar

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.